10 Comic Book Movies Hollywood Didn't Have The Balls To Make

The basic premise driving 1984's Secret Wars is downright irresistible: dozens of iconic superheroes and supervillains are summoned to a far-off planet and forced to fight for the entertainment of a supreme being called "The Beyonder."

Designed as a major crossover event for the purposes of bringing The Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and a load more Marvel characters together, it's basically Battle Royale by way of Civil War, and who wouldn't want to see that?

Secret Wars may have been on the table before, but there are a bunch of story issues that have obviously prevented it from being realised as a film. The plot - iconic as it is - is a bit ridiculous. On the page it works perfectly fine, but there's an element of randomness to everyone just being teleported off-world that doesn't really translate to the cinema.

Of course, given that Secret Wars is often lauded as the greatest Marvel crossover event, it's odd for it to have been ignored. Hollywood have probably come as close to realising this idea on the big screen with Captain America: Civil War, which provides a far more believable explanation for all the superheroes to battle one another than "a cosmic entity wanted them to fight for a laugh."